Shippo is a cloud-based platform for all your shipping needs. It is a multi-carrier solution that can automate a lot of your shipping needs and free up your time to focus on other aspects of your business.
To quote the brand, “Shippo is a multi-carrier order management platform that gives you access to discount rates and connects seamlessly with your e-commerce store.”
Their services are more slanted towards e-commerce fulfillment, and they operate with some of the biggest shipping companies around the world:
- DHL
- UPS
- FedEx
- USPS
To name a few!
Shippo works by integrating itself into your shopping cart on your online store, then comparing the prices of over 60 carriers so you can always get the best shipping price.
Shippo Features
There are some great features that Shippo offers to streamline and automate your shipping:
Website integration
Their marketplace integrations are second to none and they currently have 25 shopping carts it can connect to. Whatever channel you sell through they will almost certainly be able to integrate with it:
- Shopify
- Wix.com
- WooCommerce
- Magento
- Squarespace
The list goes on.
This by far outstrips many other shipping solutions.
Their auto-syncing to your e-commerce platform allows them to seamlessly pull orders from your site automatically in order to fulfill them, taking a lot of the stress away from you.
Discount Shipping
On top of their integration, they also work with over 60 carriers around the world and will compare rates across those carriers.
On top of that, they also negotiate preferential rates with many of the largest shippers giving you access to some of the best prices available.
These discounts are significant too! Up to 55% from UPS and 29% with FedEx if you use the Shippo-FedEx advantage program. All of this takes about 30 seconds to apply with only the click of the mouse. It’s pretty incredible if you think about it.
Shareable Tracking
Shippo also takes care of all the tracking for you and your customer so you don’t have to worry about logging and sharing tracking details. This is all done automatically for you.
Hassle-free Returns
This is one of the best features Shippo offers, and one that is garnering them a very loyal customer base.
They will automate and organize your returns for you, generating the return shipping label and sending it to your customer. This process is seamless and works incredibly well, not only removing the headache from you but also ensuring the customer still has a good experience with the whole process.
Package Insurance
Shippo will also take care of your insurance needs, give you and your customer peace of mind that the products your ship are safe and protected should the worst ever happen.
Analytics
Shippo offers a great range of analytics ‘at-a-glance’ so you can easily see your shipping history, spend and efficiency.
Shipping Labels
Shippo also has some really useful features for batch printing shipping labels too. You can print up to 100 labels in one go.
They also offer scan-based labels too, which is great as it means you only get charged if your customer actually uses it.
How does Shippo work?
You may at this point be wondering how this process actually works. We’ll break it down for you here:
- Add Shippo to your sales channels
Once you sign up for Shippo you will then connect Shippo directly with your e-commerce platform. It is a very easy process, and Shippo takes you through it step by step.
At this point, Shippo will then do most of the work of moving all your unfulfilled online orders, and any new orders to their platform automatically.
- Connecting to Carriers
Depending on where in the world you are wanting to send your orders you have over 60 carriers to choose from. This process is as simple as looking through the list and choosing the right one for you.
You can also connect to multiple carriers if you want to offer more selection to your customers.
- Ship your package
To do this you will first print your shipping label. To generate the label you’ll complete three steps:
- you will need the address to and from as well as the package size and weight.
- Choose which carrier you want to use by comparing the rates
- Print your labels to ship
The whole process is as simple as that. There are more options you can choose from, including having your parcels picked up by DHL if you’d prefer.
Shippo Pricing
Starter – if you are just starting and want to try out Shippo’s features then this is the one to go for. The Starter plan is free to join and essentially works as a pay-as-you-go package.
There are no contract commitments, no monthly fee, just a simple 5 cents per label plus the shipping fee.
You get access to their discount rates with UPS and SHL Express, as well as email and live chat support.
Professional – this plan is for higher-volume shippers that are also looking for batch labels and more automation to their workflows.
Prices start from $10 per month for up to 60 labels to $200 per month for up to 10,000 labels.
You also get access to branded customer support (meaning you can add your own branding to email notifications and package slips etc) as well as 5 user accounts for your team too.
Premier – this is for a more bespoke option if your company has a very defined fulfillment flow that you want your shipping solution to fit into.
The costs for this are unspecified, but getting in touch will link you with an account manager who will be happy to assist in putting together the right package for your business.
Shippo Customer Support
Shippo offers plenty of resources for support to make sure you can get up and running as quickly as possible, and solve any issues in a timely manner.
Their resource center has a multitude of tutorials and guides, and their help center can answer most questions or issues you might have.
If these fail then their email support and live chat are both quick and very helpful too.
They also have proficient developers on hand to help with any of your API integration needs too.
Our thoughts
Shippo is incredibly easy to use and setup, and does a great job of streamlining your fulfillment operations while keeping things simple for your customers.
They have a very user-friendly interface that is intuitive to use and offers a lot of options to tailor your needs.
Their pricing is very reasonable too, which is great.
Pros
- Great discounts
- Easy to use
- Worldwide shipping made easy
Cons
- Not ideal for larger merchants
Alternatives
There are of course alternatives to Shippo that should be considered before taking the plunge. Here are some of the more noteworthy ones in our opinion.
ShippingEasy – they claim to be the easiest online shipping platform with discount shipping and great automation. They are ideal for growing businesses.
FreightPOP – they are the smartest digital shipping hub available. Shop, ship, track, analyze and audit all in one place.
Ordoro – they are another great choice and let you work like large-scale merchants for a fraction of the cost. They help you automate dropshipping, create bulk labels, and much more.
